Chinese sports officials, Ye's father and the 16-year oldswimmer herself have all vehemently denied the doping concerns,which some observers raised after her world record performancein the 400 metres medley on Saturday.

Now the People's Daily, the main mouthpiece of the rulingCommunist Party, has added its weight to the angry rebuttals andsuggested that suspicions over Ye's two gold medals in Londonreflected broader Western ill-will towards the country'sachievements and rising strength.

"This is not the first time that certain Western media havevoice unfounded suspicions about the outstanding performance ofChinese athletes. Deep-seated prejudice has led them into blindignorance," a commentary in the paper said on Thursday.

"Naysaying by a handful of people will not ruin China'simage and nor will it hold back China's advancement," it added.

"Maligning the reputation of Chinese athletes and upsettingthe competitive performance of China's young sporting stars atthe London Olympics is really a miscalculation," the paper said.

The official Xinhua news agency, citing a statement from theChinese Swimming Association, said their swimmers underwent morethan 2,500 drug tests last year which produced no positiveresults.

"China's recent breakthroughs in swimming are the results ofscientific training and hard work," the report cited thestatement as saying.

Some of Ye's supporters have accused her detractors ofracism, pointing out that far from appearing out of nowhere, Ye,a world champion over the 200 medley last year, had been anemerging star for years.

"Ye Shiwen has been consistently training in swimming sinceshe was six or seven-years-old," said the Chinese paper. "Heroutstanding performance was not out of the blue."

Questions over Ye's display, and whether it was possiblewithout performance-enhancing drugs, surfaced after her stunning400m individual medley display, when she stormed past Americanworld champion Elizabeth Beisel in the final freestyle segment.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Additional reporting by BenBlanchard; Editing by John O'Brien)